What Progressives Hopefully Learned From Russiagate

The Robert Mueller hearing on Tuesday was widely regarded as a humiliating disaster, not just by critics of the establishment Russia narrative, but by mainstream Democratic pundits. We haven’t seen a US official look so befuddled and disorganized during a congressional hearing since that time John McCain started babbling gibberish at James Comey, and he had a tumor eating his brain.

“A frail old man, unable to remember things, stumbling, refusing to answer basic questions,” tweeted liberal documentary filmmaker Michael Moore after the circus had ended. “I said it in 2017 and Mueller confirmed it today — All you pundits and moderates and lame Dems who told the public to put their faith in the esteemed Robert Mueller — just STFU from now on.”

“Much as I hate to say it, this morning’s hearing was a disaster,” tweeted virulent Russiagater Laurence Tribe. “Far from breathing life into his damning report, the tired Robert Mueller sucked the life out of it. The effort to save democracy and the rule of law from this lawless president has been set back, not advanced.”

As you’d expect, this widespread sentiment is shared by Trump himself, who told reporters after the hearing that “We had a very good day today.”

A frail old man, unable to remember things, stumbling, refusing to answer basic questions…I said it in 2017 and Mueller confirmed it today — All you pundits and moderates and lame Dems who told the public to put their faith in the esteemed Robert Mueller — just STFU from now on

It is entirely possible that the Democrats and their allied media outlets handed Trump a re-election in 2020 with their nonstop fixation on a fact-free conspiracy theory that was doomed to failure, and many progressives have been pointing this out.

“This whole setup has done more damage to the Democrats’ chances of winning back the White House than anything that Trump could ever have dreamed up,” former MSNBC host Kristal Ball said after the hearing. “Think about all the time and the journalistic resources that could have been dedicated to stories that, I don’t know, that a broad swath of people might actually care about? Healthcare, wages, the teachers’ movement, whether we’re going to war with Iran?”

“It’s a self-soothing fantasy that makes people like Hillary Clinton and her allies feel better, but in reality all of this stood to help Trump, which is why from the very beginning I thought that this was such a disaster,” journalist Aaron Maté told CGTN America’s The Heat regarding the Russiagate conspiracy theory.

“It’s great to see more leftists & liberals recognizing that channelling the anti-Trump Resistance into a stupid conspiracy theory was a massive mistake, but for next time: let’s try harder to voice that when it’s actually happening for 2+ years, not after it finally collapses,” tweeted Maté, whose unparalleled reporting on the gaping plot holes in the Russiagate narrative won him an Izzy Award earlier this year.

It's great to see more leftists & liberals recognizing that channelling the anti-Trump Resistance into a stupid conspiracy theory was a massive mistake, but for next time: let's try harder to voice that when it's actually happening for 2+ years, not after it finally collapses.

Maté can reasonably be described as today’s leading authority on the Russiagate narrative and the arguments for and against it, and he is right not to only single out liberals in his criticism. It is true that there have been plenty of leftists and progressives who’ve continuously opposed Russiagate right from the get go, at least in part for the reasons Maté offers, but it is also true that it wasn’t just liberals who got lost in the conspiratorial haze of Trump-Russia hysteria.

I always get people on the left arguing with me about this, but it’s true. Being involved in progressive circles in 2017 was like watching a zombie apocalypse, with more and more leftists and Berners contracting the mind virus with every shrieking “bombshell” mass media Russiagate report. Maybe in your own small circle you didn’t see anyone succumb to the zombie outbreak, but everyone who interacted with a large and diverse cross-section of America’s true left in early-to-mid 2017 knows exactly what I’m talking about. Not everyone hopped on the Russiagate bandwagon, but many did, likely due in no small part to the fact that Bernie Sanders himself was continuously and forcefully pushing the collusion narrative on American progressives.

But it wasn’t even that they all necessarily bought into the propaganda. When Russiagate first started I pushed back against it hard on social media, especially on Facebook, and during that time I had a few Bernie people (who comprised a majority of my audience back then) admit to me that they knew the Russia stuff was probably fake, but they were helping to push it in the hope that it could hurt Trump. They didn’t honestly believe he’d get removed from office for Russian collusion, but they hoped that pushing for an investigation would help turn up impeachable evidence of corruption, or at least cause him political damage.

What do such people have to show for that strategy now? A new cold war reignited by a president who has been able to escalate world-threatening tensions against Russia with no resistance from his ostensible opposition whatsoever, and a 2020 election that now looks orders of magnitude harder to win than it ever should have been.

Trump just told @seanhannity that Putin was "very, very strong." I bet he was. How did it feel, big guy? This is the right-wing alpha?! Ha, ha, ha. Sad! Their leader just got cucked in front of the whole world. It was an absolute #Cucktastrophe. #Beta#Omega#TreasonSummit

There are a couple of lessons that I hope progressives have learned from all this.

Firstly, I hope progressives have learned that we’re never going to manipulate our way into progressive reform. Truth is the one and only weapon we have. Trying to use a deceitful narrative to manipulate toward a desired end is something establishment loyalists do, but if progressives try it it will bite us in the ass every single time. If we try to manipulate the establishment away, we’re pitting our fledgling manipulation skills against manipulators who have generations of mastery in that field under their belt. You’re never, ever going to manipulate desired ends out of an establishment that is teeming with master manipulators. Truth is the only way.

Secondly, I hope that progressives are beginning to see that you can’t collaborate with the establishment to defeat the establishment. The oligarchic empire isn’t going to cooperate in its own destruction. Believing that you were going to be able to use an empire lackey like Robert “Iraq has WMDs” Mueller to bring the Executive Branch of the US empire to its knees was very foolish. If there’s any strength left in what remains of America’s progressive movement to effect real change, that change will come solely from grassroots populism, and it will be met with extremely forceful opposition from the Democratic establishment. If what you’re doing isn’t giving Nancy Pelosi literal night terrors, it’s worthless.

The establishment narrative managers are not done trying to herd America’s political left back into the establishment fold. New attempts to manipulate the mind of the American progressive are being workshopped currently, and they will likely be more subtle and devious than Russiagate was. Here’s hoping progressives learn their lesson and grow from it enough to prevent the next manipulation from succeeding.

Latest comments

Ricky/August 6, 2019

Let us not forget that Mueller was not only pushing the fable about ‘weapons of mass destruction’, but, imo, even worse, was the fact that he was at the helm at the FBI on 9/11. He MUST know that the ‘commission report’ on 911 is a farce. He MUST know that those buildings were rigged with demolitions. If, Mueller didn’t know about it, then we have a very serious problem on our hands because that would allude to the fact that there are secret agencies in our midst that are so powerful that they can even plan false flag events and keep it from the FBI. I seriously doubt that however, and believe that Mueller does know the truth. Counting on him to do anything resembling honest and righteous acts for Americans is a HUGE waste of time. If he says Russia ‘hacked’ DNC docs, you can be sure, it was Mr. Rich.

Matt/July 31, 2019

The unelected run our government, buying and bribing legislation for the elites and their (wanna-be) successors. The Thinking People are fed up and will elect a true Independent to rid the entire system of Big Money with publicly funded, paper ballot backed, election reformation.

Robyn/July 30, 2019

Who are US voters going to support then. There’s an undercurrent here, as in so many anti-Trump anti-war anti-Imperialist pro-social justice sites, that hope lies with the Democrats – if only they would smarten up a bit. Policies which would make the US and the world a better place are not on the agenda of EITHER party. I could go on, but I am in despair that people think electing a Democrat is going to change anything. Read a bit of history, folks. Take a look at candidates’ voting records, funding sources, policy positions before you decide who represents YOUR interests.

cutthecord/July 30, 2019

There’s no point in voting AT ALL unless the votes are going to get counted accurately. Russiagate was just a big distraction from the real culprit, electronic vote-flipping. mintpressnews.com/donald-trump-warned-of-a-rigged-election-was-he-right/224326/http://www.thepolemicist.net/2016/09/strike-vote.html

Lloyd/July 29, 2019

Excellent article here, thanks. Seeing Bernie on the podium looking angry and pointing that finger… I’m tempted to digress on that one, BUT, back on track… I once hoped to have the opportunity to vote for Bernie as did a great many more concerned citizens. This was before Hillary’s tricks (nothing unexpected) ripped the guts out of fully half the Democrat party with her “my turn” fix thingy. My own guts turned Green in the aftermath and never looked back.

Long being rather conservative, politically speaking, I figured Bernie as being the least harmful option seemingly on the table. What seems outwardly radical from the “socialist” angle might sound well in the bleachers for many idealists, the the reality was if Bernie did win it would ultimately amount to a “do nothing” presidency, IMHO, with little or no support in the Congress and probably a whole lineup of court challenges at every turn.

That said, a do nothing government would have been fine with me because the less government comes up with new laws and too often bad laws when they can’t even enforce the existing ones, the better. On the other hand, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are extremely strong willed, egotistical and possessed of a somewhat scary temperament. I’d categorize these two particular unique cards in the deck as the Red Queen of diamonds Hillary card and the scary Joker Trump card. Handy name, Trump. Trump always wins.

IMHO, either exhibits a little too effective “leadership” for the most powerful position the world has ever known. Yes, Bernie (or perhaps anyone) would have been safer if we expect to long enjoy what few Constitutional powers We the People have remaining. Let’s hope I’m wrong but time will tell.

“You’re never, ever going to manipulate desired ends out of an establishment that is teeming with master manipulators. Truth is the only way.”

This progressive (me) believes in truth and honesty on principle. If manipulation ‘could’ win me gains, even gains for society as a whole, I wouldn’t go there. Then again, I’m not faithless. I don’t take the view that if we can’t fix things, then they won’t get fixed. Speaking of ‘fixing’, this system things can’t, and shouldn’t, be fixed. It needs to be destroyed. Call it ‘reform’ if you like.

Ishkabibble/July 29, 2019

It is destroying itself now, right before your eyes. The one and only solution to this irreparable economic/financial connundrum for the Western Elite is yet another astronomically-profitable war. Will it lead to nuclear E.L.E? We’ll soon find out.

Ishkabibble/July 29, 2019

Yes. Imagine the description of the job, expected duties of the job, qualifications for the job and personality requirements for the job, in a “Help Wanted” ad for “President of the United States of America”.

Ishkabibble/July 29, 2019

“………. If there’s any strength left in what remains of America’s progressive movement to effect real change, that change will come solely from grassroots populism.” .. The question is: a “real change” to just exactly WHAT END? .. There’s an ongoing debate about the living conditions in Baltimore. Agent Orange describes the terrible conditions there and in much of LA and a growing number of other cities. He thinks that local management is repsonsible for those conditions. That is incorrect, but Orange is, because of his upbringing and adult experinces, pefectly INCAPABLE of realizing that what is indeed responsible is fatal flaws in whatever you want to call the present “system” in the US. No matter WHO was mayor in those cities, he/she would have been incapable of changing the INEVITABLE course of economic events in history to the present situation. The question that has not been answered is: just exactly WHAT is wrong –what is the fatal flaws — in the present system? .. For example, if Detroit’s and other cities’ factories had NOT been moved to other countries (in order to maximize profits), the present living conditions in those cities today would be vastly better. The residents of thsoe cities did not want those factories moved and to lose their livelihoods. But no, heaven forbid that we discuss why things have devolved to where they are today in the “depressed” cities. Not allowed, because the present arrangement is perfect. Orange keeps saying it every day of the week. America and its great cities are the best place on earth …………… except all those formerly great cities he says are shitholes.

Margaret Bartley/July 29, 2019

I don’t know who owns the capital that decided to disinvest in the US, and move their investment dollars to Asia, but that decision was made in the 1970s. It took several decades to develop the infrastructure to do so, just as it took decades to develop the legal and industrial infrastructure to make the US an appropriate place for them to move their investments from England, 100 years ago. We (average US citizens) didn’t bring the investment dollars in, and we are (were – most of othe money has already moved on) not able to stop those investment dollars from leaving.

What we can do is understand the dynamics, look at the resources we continue to have, and make the most of the current situation. Instead of assessing and analyzing and planning for a new economy, we are finger-pointing, complaining, and playing pretend in a world that does not exist and never will.

We could study the use of sweat equity to rebuild depressed areas. We could look at zoning laws that only add to the complexity of refurbishing rundown buildings. We could look at the licensing laws that keep people from developing their own low-cost day cares, health clinics, personal care salons, repair shops, entertainment venues. Over the decades, as more and more of the things people used to do to take care of themselves got taken over by government rules, poverty increased.

We have an educated citizenry that has a history of civic engagement. That has been severed in the past several decades, but the roots are still there, and can be nourished.

With the loss of money, we need to rebuild the economy based on human activity, rather than on money. There are huge swaths of all city governments that are specifically designed to keep people from helping each other, and building a society based on people, rather than on corporate profite.

The dynamics are such that there is enough money to pay off the few that run the government, and their friends, so there is a strong incentive to keep the current system in place, especially for those who benefit from it. But that can be overcome by local organizing.

margaret bartley/July 29, 2019

I’m not suggesting that people can grow all their own food, not only because of the weather, which you cite, but also because you need a lot of land, which cities don’t have. But I don’t see food as that big of a problem. I remember the beginnings of coops in the 70s when people would buy food in bulk, which was a HUGE help.

I’m more talking about the things like what I listed – ways of making money that are called “gray market” – the activity is not illegal, but doing it without paying licenses and jumping through government hoops is illegal.

More examples – women used to sell their homemake pies to restaurants and bars. Kids sold lemonade on the street. There used to be flea markets where people could sell their junk. My dad doubled the size of our house, as the size of our family grew.

I went back to our family homestead in upstate Maine. I asked about the funny, long room in the middle of it.

In the old days, when the men got married, they would add a room on to the house and that’s where the son would bring his bride.

At one time a porch surrounded much of the house, and they added rooms on to the front of the porch. By the time I was there, the porch was a funny-shaped interior room!

The point I’m making is that there are lots of ways we can do more for ourselves, and provide services to others, but the government, and this is mostly the city government, steps in and requires unreasonably high amounts of money to allow those activities to take place. Or regulates them to create artificial barriers to entry.

glider/July 29, 2019

Russiagate was an elitist Democrat (let’s call it DNC) con job from day one. The DNC has not seriously dealt with its internal corruption, and it unfortunately appears that their Russiagate scam SUCCESSFULLY deflected attention away from the rot within it. New DNC chairman Tom Perez is a pathetic do nothing neo-liberal whose speeches use every meaningless mainstream cliche possible. With a crowded field of Dem Presidental candidates the DNC is setting up to again select an elitist leaning Super-Delegate chosen candidate in a tie-breaker scenario. This is not surprising given that their defense of rigging the last election, was that they had the right to do so as a private corporation. It amazes me that the DNC could get caught red handed giving HRC debate and town hall questions prior to the event. This should be a big deal as it is a real interference in “our elections”. But they got away with it.

Levi Tate/July 29, 2019

cutthecord/July 29, 2019

Pat McCarthy/July 29, 2019

I take issue with all this. First- if the US has left the “door unlocked on it’s elections” – we need to lock it. Russia just happens to be the culprit this time – big deal – the US does the same. Move on. I agree the deep state loves the propaganda- so what else is new. Put safeguards into effect and move on.

Mueller’s testimony was fantastic. Second- it was exactly what everyone expected. He clearly implicated crooked luring Trump in obstruction and unethical behavior. It also opens the door on further investigations of Trump’s finances. Keep on trucking dems- IMPEACH THE. BASTARD!!!

Larry G/July 29, 2019

Paticia Ormsby/July 29, 2019

Listening to the left half of my family, they are joyous that Mueller made a big statement condemning Trump and that impeachment will proceed smoothly this time. Guilty until proven innocent, and since as we all know anything supportive of Trump is fake news, Guilty, by golly!

Peter in Seattle/July 30, 2019

GPCUS/July 29, 2019

I don’t know… there is no evidence yet they have learned anything… they bought the Russian interference narrative, for which the publicly available evidence is less than flimsy, and more generally “the Russian did it because we say so, no proof needed” mantra, completely and without any further scrutiny, ended up in the same carriage with neo-conservatives, prisoners of the war party and supporting dangerous foreign policy paths and seems not to have realized that… As Lenin is quoted to have said: “The best way to control the opposition is to lead it”… It’s funny the US supposedly liberal, democratic and enlightened leading class perfectioned his teaching 🙂

GPCUS/July 29, 2019

cutthecord/July 29, 2019

i came here to relay the bad news that Representatives Ro Khanna (silicon valley) and Ayanna Pressley (Boston), both billed as “pregressive” and members of “justice dems” caucus, as well as Rep Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii), have voted FOR the anti-BDS bill written by AIPAC, the bill that criminalizes US citizens’ boycotting Israel for its crimes against humanity.

and i find this piece by Caitlin that warns us against more and worse attempts by the zionist Deep State to manipulate and coerce the real progressives….

Aimee/July 29, 2019

I was upset about this as well, but if you read it, it’s only a resolution, not a bill so does not become a law. Basically Congress said, “we oppose the BDS movement” and some other things about Israel and Palestine needing to work together. No way would Tulsi support a law limiting free speech. I’m still not happy about her signing but may be political move to avoid antisemitic smear if she didn’t? It’s a lose-lose situation and it’s not being reported very honestly by some progressive commentators. Don’t let AIPAC use this manipulative resolution with no teeth to further divide progressives, because that seems to be the purpose of it. And please don’t attack me as making excuses for Tulsi. I disagree with her but you won’t find a presidential candidate in the House who voted no. Not sure how Bernie feels about it but he’s still peddling Russiagate and and has been reticent regarding Julian Assange’s arrest and imprisonment, so I’ll stick with Tulsi for now.

cutthecord/July 30, 2019

Margaret Bartley/July 29, 2019

The whole media, both left and right, progressive, liberal, and conservative agrees with you that Mueller was rambling, incoherent, even *gasp!* OLD. But it kind of reminds of when everyone called Reagan asleep at the switch. He was catnapping during the cabinet meetings when they were talking about waging an illegal war in Central America – it wasn’t his fault, he was asleep at the switch.

The clues that lead me to think Mueller was pretending to be confused, deaf, muddling is because it always happened when he was asked an embarrassing question. But if you go back to where he was asked if Trump could be indicted for obstruction of justice after he left office, his response was quick, strong, even agressive. Yes! And he went into detail with clear, sharply focused logic and language. He even pointed out that if Trump won a second term, he could outlast the statute of limitations, and be immune from prosecution. Again, the point is that during that part of his testimony, there was no sign of hesitation or befuddlement.

I did not watch any of the hearings but I expected Mr. Mueller to do exactly what you said he did, Margaret. People are put into high government office because of their ability to hide the real truth from the public, the media, and from congress. Mr. Mueller gave up nothing.

Levi Tate/July 29, 2019

I didn’t watch either, but I have expressed this same possibility in conversation. If he stayed awake for three days in a row and threw in a hangover somewhere in there he could have pulled it off.

I also thought to myself that possibly, slowly, slowly people would awaken to this possibility and it would become a sizable opinion.

There are ongoing investigations into how Russiagate started and the behavior of Clinton-camp investigators. People are going down (I so hope Brennan is one of them), barring some huge huge huge distracting event, and Mueller could have been one of them – less likely if he is deemed incompetent to defend himself. Which gives further insight into why he might want to pose as addled.

Levi Tate/July 29, 2019

I usually agree with you Caitlin but believe you are way off on this article. – (I am a Green Voter, by the way) – In particular, this paragraph: – “What do such people have to show for that strategy now? A new cold war reignited by a president who has been able to escalate world-threatening tensions against Russia with no resistance from his ostensible opposition whatsoever, and a 2020 election that now looks orders of magnitude harder to win than it ever should have been.” – If I read that paragraph correctly you are saying Trump set out to have bad relations with Russia and Democrats side-lined themselves while he did it. – Caitlin, you have it backwards. Trump wanted improved or normalized relations with Russia but he found himself, even before his inauguration, dealing with a new McCarthyism. – It was headline news if (with bated breathe!) it was revealed that someone in or close to the Trump campaign/administration even talked to (oh my gosh!) a Russian ambassador! – Such hysteria from the Democrats and the MSM. – The people Trump had around him in 2016 and early 2017 fell like flies. And the MSM and Democrats were triumphant. And it fed their Russiagate delusions. And it kept Trump off balance and fearful of Russian contact. The Trump people we have now are not the Trump people we started with. – And when Trump actually met with Putin – and behind closed doors (holy wow!) – you would think Trump’s real name was Julius Rosenberg. – The Democrats resurrected the CIA. “How dare Trump not believe our intelligence agencies”. And the intelligence agencies delivered leaks and evidence-free official reports that were eaten up by Democrats and fed their Russiagate delusions and hysteria. – The Democrats treated the lying MSM as sacred ground. “How dare Trump attack the Free Press! ‘Fake News’ – How dare that monster say that?” – It was an echo chamber. The lying MSM feeding Democrats the delusions they wanted to hear. And the enriched MSM being protected by willfully gullible Democrats. – This Green progressive Voter, me, didn’t believe Russiagate for one day, not one hour. McCarthyism for me was an old bad joke – “It’s all a commie plot” – that only bucktoothed yahoos could believe in. But Democrats, many of them intelligent, jumped right on the McCarthyist bandwagon. What I thought originally would be a one day story in the newspapers turned into 30 months and counting. – Incredible!

It has been an epiphany for me. Intelligent people bought into this. What the hell good is intelligence if it just makes you more skilled at rationalizing whatever stance you already hold?! – Incredible. – Democrats voted for WWIII Hillary. She told you repeatedly, and over a long period of time, that she was going to get into a shooting war with Russia in Syria. And you were all indignant when she lost, you bloody maniacs! – Supporters of warfare, backers of the CIA and the MSM. Delusional McCarthyists and you really took the cake with how smug and indignant you Democrats have been. – Incredible.

Ishkabibble/July 29, 2019

Exactly correct description of reality. Bravo. .. I would add only that the millions and millions of people — both R and D — who would lose their MIC jobs if peace were to break out between Russia, China and the US, breathed a sigh of relief when Trump was destroyed by the MSM for having that audacity to shake hands with Mr. Putin and smile. A great big sigh of relief that their jobs would last forever.

Matt Zebell/July 30, 2019

Bravo, Levi Tate! Everything you have written here describes my experiences both over the past 3 long agonizing years and how I am feeling today.

I’m 71 years old. I was just barely too young to have experienced the mass psychosis that must have permeated the McCarthy Era. Therefore, I have never in my lifetime experienced such overwhelming delusion. All of my dearest Good Liberal friends … Every. Single. One…. fell willfully for this hoax. Their cognitive dissonance has been as overpowering as in any right-winger I’ve ever encountered. They allowed their hatred of Trump to destroy any semblance of rational and critical thinking. RussiaGate became their Birther Movement with the batshit-crazy Rachel Maddow as their Glenn Beck.

I was accused by my best friend of being a Putin puppet and useful tool of the Kremlin. I became persona non grata, no longer welcome at any of the cool parties.

The damage these RussiaGaters have done is beyond comprehension. Seeing it unravel during these past few months leaves no feeling of vindication in me. I already knew it was all contrived bullshit from day one. Just an empty sadness at losing so many intelligent and dear friends. Not in the physical sense. I love them too much. The loss is much deeper than that.

Levi Tate/July 30, 2019

So sorry for your pain, Matt. Wish I had some comforting advice. When Trump wins again, as seems likely, our “good liberal friends” are going to go off the deep end for sure. Not even sure what their collective reaction will look like. – My brother and I agreed to leave politics out of our conversations. I didn’t want to get mad at him and I didn’t want him mad at me. I was shocked and surprised, though I shouldn’t have been, when I learned he was a Russiagater. And, yes, he is a Democrat. He has a PhD in a well paying science, so he is no dummy for sure. I haven’t checked in with him since the Mueller testimony, but I don’t think it will have made a spot of difference. – I am not waiting for “vindication”, it likely will never ever come, no matter what truth comes out. A sad fact about human nature. There are investigations taking place at this moment that are likely going to crush the main perpetrators (excluding MSM critters) of Russiagate. But the MSM is going to tell us those investigations are “tainted”. (Watch for that word this fall and beyond, I predict it will be on everyone’s lips). Deluded Democrats are going to stay deluded, no matter what avalanche of truth comes their way. Sad but true. A newly learned truth for me, and I have been around for a very long time.

Levi Tate/July 30, 2019

minecritter/August 1, 2019

Your message resonated with me. The number of people in my life who I could talk with openly about politics dropped to two after “weapons of mass destruction” mass hysteria, and to zero after Russiagate. One of my oldest friends called me unpatriotic and still believes Sadaam had weapons of mass destruction. I decided to never bring it up, and they ended up yelling at me when I asked what the evidence for Russiagate was. One of the two people I had left had been sharp as a tack at detecting post-9/11 bullshit. I thought I could de-program them by sending the video of Aaron’s interview with Luke Harding, but they had already seen Luke Harding somewhere and mentally filed him on their “good” list, and now they see Aaron as the mean guy who didn’t read Harding’s book. It hurts to see smart people literally choose propaganda over me.

minecritter/August 1, 2019

I am also a Green voter, and I was not fooled by Russiagate. I wondered why, since I’m usually easy to fool. The answer is almost none of my most trusted political sources were fooled, including Caitlin, Glenn Greenwald, Aaron Maté, Jimmy Dore, Lee Camp, and everyone at https://blackagendareport.com/. I wondered how I managed to cultivate such a stable of non-dingbats, and I think the answer is I’ve been dropping every Democratic Party loyalist who’s screamed at me for voting Green and accused me of secretly trying to get Republicans elected. Hmm.

F. Foundling/July 29, 2019

‘you can’t collaborate with the establishment to defeat the establishment.’ . You can collaborate with parts of the establishment to effect some change. Almost every revolution has been aided by some individuals or factions within the previous establishment. The problem is that bringing down Trump via the likes of Mueller (which was, per se, not an inconceivable scenario) would never have constituted any harm to the establishment at all. Its only result would have been the setting of an example showing that any politician who attempts to deviate from the Establishment’s bellicose policy against Russia will have his/her career destroyed. As so often in life, the means cannot be justified by the end when they actually produce a different end. The way you defeat Trump determines what comes after Trump; the Muellertime strategy could have led only to a more hawkish successor, not to a less corportate-friendly or reactionary one.

Eli Folk/July 29, 2019

Trump has promoted a Reality TV era in the American narrative and Russiagate was the Dem response. You wonder how low they can go historically, but if they make a war the sleaze increase the tides of the swamp.

Mr. Paul Craig Roberts says it much better than I can: It is enough to drive a person to despair that among the abundant evidence of United States of American election interference, no attention is given by Democrats to interference by the Israel Lobby, the pharmaceutical lobby, the oil lobby, the Wall Street Lobby, the military/security complex lobby. Sheldon Adelson, a single individual with a fortune from casino gambling of $33 billion, 300 million dollars, has more clout on the outcome of United States presidential elections than Mr. Putin. These few lobbies mentioned above have resources berween them in excess of the GDP of Russia. It is totally impossible for Russia to outbid them.-Paul Craig Roberts

RB-34/July 29, 2019

One thing that people have to recognize and learn as a solid fact. Its always a lie when some politician or lobbying groups says to “Follow Us” and we’ll lead the long suppressed lefties to victory. Its always a confidence game. Every single time. ————– The only movement we can trust is the one we build ourselves. The only leaders we can trust are the members of our movement who we nominate, campaign for and elect. We need to nominate someone from within, who lives in our neighborhoods, who gets ripped off by the same stores, who gets attacked by the same police. The leader that comes to us from outside and says Follow Me is always lying. We can only trust what we build ourselves. We can only trust ourselves. We must put ourselves into power. We must build the movement to do so.

Roy/July 29, 2019

There are no progressives in the U.S.A., only the mafia, and the mafia is well connected to the affluent, just as it has been for hundreds of years; if at anytime the progressives were to step out of bounds, they would quickly find themselves facing the same future as the Roma did during WW2.

mike k/July 29, 2019

Russiagate is such an obvious fraud that is hard not to see how clueless the majority of Americans are. If you are waiting for the mass mind to wake up, join those waiting for Godot – it ain’t ever going to happen. We are in for a nightmare ride with no end in sight.

RB-34/July 29, 2019

Its funny though. History is full of examples where people think exactly that. Right up until the moment that they do wake up. Leaders, Police, Spies, activists who think they are the vanguard of coming change, all always make exactly the same mistake. From reading histories of revolutions, the one thing that always seems to be true is that nobody sees it coming. If you look closely, the people who are later hailed as heroes of the revolution were usually caught by surprise when it began, and found themselves behind the crowd. The people who later claim to have led the revolution were almost always struggling to catch up with the crowd that was revolting. I’m not talking about the color-by-numbers revolutions that are done by a spy agency. But the real ones where the people rise up and say Enough!. Nobody sees those coming, everyone is caught by surprise, the activists who were dreaming of revolution for years in advance are caught napping. They are chaotic affairs where everything happens quickly and nobody knows what is going on. Which means, that when a revolution looks impossible, then it could happen tomorrow. Just because people are working hard trying to survive and focusing on that, it doesn’t mean that don’t know that they are screwed every day and then the whole thing can’t ignite suddenly. It always seems to work that way.

mike k/July 29, 2019

The revolutions of our human past have all occurred within the parameters of conventional thinking. What Caitlin (and myself) ae calling for is a truly radical revolution in human consciousness. This has never happened before, and the chance of it’s happening now are very slim. Marianne Williamson’s candidacy is asking the question of Americans – “how many are ready for a real change?”

cutthecord/July 29, 2019

Rocketman/July 29, 2019

But you see Catlin, the extreme left CAN’T play the truth card. It’s not in their DNA and at this point they don’t even know what the real truth is anymore. Secondly, their previous lies would quickly get exposed instantly to anyone paying the least bit of attention.

tamarque/July 29, 2019

Usually agree with your posts but this one raises some questions, or at least one. Mueller stated more than once, and it was in the press even before the hearings, that DOJ put heavy limits on what Mueller could talk about. I saw a man who was totally complying with that censure. Mueller is not radical. Quite the opposite. He is a company man thru and thru having supported some heavy reactionary and illegal tendencies in the CIA.

The Dems are too much part of this system to really have done anything with this investigation. They supported burying real 911 information. They have a long history of doing the same with the JFK, RK, MLK, Malcom assassinations.

As for Russiagate? The real issue in elections is the home grown destruction of voting rights but the Dems, on this issue, too, are dead silent. Instead they diverted attention to this Mueller report, I truly wonder if they ever thought the hearings would provide anything. I also believe most of them are so committed to the establishment they would actually destroy an electoral win just to protect the oligarchy. They threw the 2016 election in so many ways, not the least of which was their destruction of the Sanders efforts, a man who actually could have/would have won.

P.Brooks/July 29, 2019

cutthecord/July 29, 2019

cutthecord/July 29, 2019

progressives are folks who look to government (a framework that enables folks to rob folks to finance assaults against folks by folks) to resolve personal concerns through up-to-lethal acts by government folks.

I thought you are promoting individual liberty. I get that you identify as a progressive. What did I miss?

RB-34/July 29, 2019

As an anarchist, I fail to see that there is any contradiction. The left can be and has stood strongly for personal liberty. In fact, its the left that invented it. It wasn’t the conservatives who led the French Revolution. Conservatives and the right do not want personal liberty. Never have. They continually want to return to the old days when they claim that some country was great, and that is always back before an increase in personal liberty that was won by the left. Now they have managed to con a group of people into the bizarre notion that corporations and billionaires want all their slaves to be free. Well, they want the slaves to think they are free. Now there seem to be a lot of fools with Live Free or Die flags who then go out and fight for corporate power and authoritarians like Trump.

F. Foundling/July 29, 2019

Progressives are folks who look to government to defend and promote the individual liberty and wellbeing of folks – also against other folks. Libertarians are folks who pretend the only threat to individual liberty comes from government – and specifically from its defence and promotion of individual liberty and wellbeing. Your individual liberty is not harmed and you are not ‘robbed’ when you are made to help others in exchange for the help you get from them in accordance with a collective decision. When you are in the same boat as everybody else, you have to obey some common rules for the common good – which is simply the sum of the individual good of everybody on board.

F. Foundling/July 30, 2019

Your individual liberty is harmed BY DEFINITION when you are MADE to do anything. To assert otherwise is to reduce your use of language to gibberish. The only justification for infringement of one person’s liberty is to prevent infringement of the liberty of another person, full stop.

F. Foundling/July 30, 2019

Your definition of liberty sucks and is incompatible with any society that has ever existed. Any functioning society does *make* its members do certain things for their mutual benefit – that’s the main advantage of having a society in the first place. Such is the social contract – if you don’t want to live in any such society, you are free to move to a desert island and try to see whether your ridiculous idea of perfect freedom from obligations to your fellow-humans will work.

It’s terribly tempting to want to feed the hungry proletariat the meal they desire. But each of those comics you mention have all made me laugh hard. Much of late night comedy now sadly is remarkably interchangeable. Don’t despair https://t.co/MePoHPzcJq

@RobSchneider This is exactly why I reserve a special hatred for comedians like Bill Maher, Steve Colbert, Samantha Bee and Trevor Noah who sell their talent to the churning out of propaganda for establishment power structures. https://t.co/vTVPNe3kU8

Excerpt from "Mainstream 'Centrists' Pose The Greatest Ideological Threat To Us All":

People like Ashton Kutcher imagine that the so-called “center” is called that because it sits smack dab in the middle of the ideological spectrum between communism and fascism, right in that moderate sweet spot that respects capitalism and private ownership without flying off the deep end into Nazi-like tyranny. In reality, the status quo exists entirely outside any left-right paradigm. It’s neither “left” nor “right” to give total control of the western world to an alliance of plutocrats and opaque government agencies who seek to expand their power and wealth by destroying our ecosystem, waging endless wars, and gradually shoring up more and more control of their citizenry via internet censorship, surveillance and police militarization. It’s just crazy.

I’m picking on Ashton not because he occupies some special place in all this, but because he doesn’t. He’s just an illustration of how blind people have become to the real threat that’s right in front of them, and how normalized insanity has become.

People who identify as “left” see the ruling power establishment as right-wing, people who identify as “right” see the ruling power establishment as left-wing, and people who identify as “center” see themselves as moderates whose normal, healthy way of life is under threat by the “far right” and “far left”. But really all that’s happening is a few assholes fucking over everyone else, which is no more “left” or “right” than a terrorist attack. The left versus right argument doesn’t even make sense until this far more pressing issue has been resolved. A Bernie supporter and a Trump supporter are arguing about left versus right while trapped in a room with a tiger who’s eating them both alive.